Skeptical Atheist

Posted by Anthony at June 16th, 2006

Did you ever wonder what the Bible literacy rates are amongst the believers? Aside from anecdotal accounts, I couldn’t find too many studies on that. My gut feeling is - it’s not very high. It’s no surprise really: will every devoted Christian reading this who’ve read both Old and New Testament from the beginning to the end please stand up? I’d even venture to say that nowadays non-believers actually have more incentives to read the bible than the believers do.

Onto the main topic that brought this up: this oh-so-bright (as you are about to see) congressman Westmoreland from Georgia (wouldn’t you know it?) co-sponsored a bill to require the display of 10 Commandments in the House of Representatives. So, Stephen Colbert set up an interview and asked him non-chalantly what the 10 Commandments actually were. Since I’m posting this you can pretty much guess what the answer was:

Stephen Colbert Interviews congressman Westmoreland

Posted by Anthony at June 6th, 2006

“Here is wisdom. Let he who has understanding calculate the number of the Beast; for his number is that of a man; and his number is 666″. (Rev:13:18)

Well now, today is June 6th, ‘06, and it seems that I’m still here. In fact, if you are reading this - chances are that you are still here too. The end of the world hasn’t happened, yet again. Granted, this date had a lot less fanfare attached to it compared with say Y2K, which just goes to show you that the doomsayers are finally learning, or at least they are playing it safe nowadays.

When it comes to doomsday [- or rapture, or the second coming as it’s known in some of the more popular mythologies] there seems to be no consensus on how to calculate the actual date. Homer Simpson thought that number of Filipinos in the Bible [- it’s zero, btw] had something to do with it. Most doomsayers got it so wrong so many times they hardly bother anymore.

Moreover, there are some dissenting folks out there who think that “666″ doesn’t even mean what we think it does. John Marshall, a professor of Early Christianity at the University of Toronto thinks the number refers to a roman emperor that the writer of Revelations particularly disliked:

“It seems very clear . . . from a historical point of view, the Book of Revelation is alluding to something in its time,” Marshall said. “It certainly doesn’t concern 2006 North America in a direct way.” (The London Free Press)

Wow. A statement from the ancient book does NOT.. concern 2006 North America.. in any direct way? B–b-But. Umm.. oh.. My world’s just gone topsy-turvy. But everything else in Revelations … must be true, right? RIGHT? I mean they wouldn’t call it “Revelations” if it didn’t reveal anything, that much I’m certain of.

So where does all of this leave us? Does today’s only significance lie in the fact that it helps to sell terrible movie flops? Or will we witness some supernatural, heavenly act, after all? There is still time until midnight. I don’t know about you, but I’m not holding my breath.